december 15.2000 • * “ *■■*125
A rare moment— Van bant
doesn’t like to smile in front of
other people’s cameras
*o t»A ir
*O O A K
When Just Out asks about it,
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hear is all the endless decon-
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ty itself. And for the record, the *
famously macho Ginnery had no
problem with his directors sexual orientation.
So has Van Sant experienced homophobia
in Hollywood? “Fifty percent of the people
working in show business are gay.... I think
they’d like nothing better than to make gay
were true it would’ve been even more fun,” he
films, but people are always analyzing what will
says enigmatically.
make money,” he explains. “There’s a new gay
According to Van Sant, his residence was also
film on a contained budget coming out every
used for editing and the production office, but
month now, whereas that wouldn’t happen 10,
the ffat house atmosphere “proved too chaotic,”
15 years ago. Parting G lances [1986] indicated
so he actually moved out of his own home and
that a modest gay story could be made. If it
left it in the hands of his cast and crew.
made the kind of money that action films
Van Sant trusted his cast in other ways,
make, they’d be making gay films.”
Green recalls. “River had this idea that his
And can we expect another gay-themed
character should fall in love with Keanu’s char
film from him? “Yes, but it comes down to get
acter, so he wrote the dialogue himself for the
ting them funded.”
campfire scene.”
Indeed, during shooting
When asked it he was going
, gf-
iH
Phoenix told his director in a story
to make a documentary of
///§
y M ! , I the actor wrote for Interview: “One
Phoenix’s life, Van Sant told
w | 111 of the things that I really appreci-
Salon in 1997: “Pink was it....
^
J
ate in working with you is that in
This book is very much influ
that collaborative stage you have
enced by River. It’s a documen- |X ,
no fear ot your ego being stripped
tary of my life and existence
i
or anything.”
through him.”
{
We had to ask how he could
At a reading of Pink Van
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work so intimately with all these
Sant was asked the question
beautiful, charismatic men and not
everyone wants the answer to: Who drove up
and rescued the River Phoenix character at
fall in love with them a little. “A ll
the end of Idaho I Van Sant replied that he
directors have to fall in love with
intentionally left it ambiguous: “I was hoping
their lead characters; the leading
that the viewer would project themselves into
character is the spokesm
the film and decide for them-
■ ■ ™ universe you’re making
Connery bonds with his director
***W*«wj selves who it was.”
the film about,” Van
KKAm t
Sant says. “When we’re
casting guys there is the extra con
He does, however, offer a glimmer of hope
flict of interest of falling in love with
for better days ahead. “There’s a gay middle
them, but I don’t allow that to hap
class now, and if they demand that a $50 mil
pen. In France, directors say they
lion film be made starring Barbra Streisand,
have
to make love to their actors,
then it’ll get made.”
but they’re French. I’m more
And what does he think has to happen for
Calvinist,” he deadpans.
actors to be openly gay in Hollywood? “Actors
But what about his actors—does
are hard to pinpoint—struggling actors are
he think they fall in love with him
what you want them to be—they become
MY OWN
a little? “Some have to,” he admits,
whatever the role demands.”
PRIVATE IDAHO
adding that some actors require cer
tain behavior from a director, even
ne Gus Van Sant film that connects him
tyrannical behavior. “I have to have
viscerally with his years in Portland is My
everything peaceful and nice; I
Oum Private Idaho, the complex tale of two
can’t
stand angry people working."
hustlers that he co-wrote with a guy named
Shakespeare. (He did give the Bard
screen credit for his Henry IV riffs.) At
the tender age of 19, Scott Green
lucked into a dream job on the film as
assistant to the director; he also played
two small roles and began to learn his
craft as a still photographer on that set.
“We all lived up there in Gus’ house
during Idaho," he recalls fondly of the
time spent with cast members River
n *0 ) %g
m
it i
w ês
'2
Not satisfied with this response, the ques
tioner asked: Who picked him up in your ver
sion? “In my version, I pick him up.”
he director followed Idaho with a disappoint
ing rendition of Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls
Get the Blues, which Van Sant wanted to do
because he saw it as the story of a
i-' JzdiJm female hero and a break from films
I that often objectify women. In many
critics’ eyes he redeemed himself with
j - l —
I his follow-up, the Nicole Kidman
j j f iSa vehicle To Die For, although its suc-
cess also was credited to another
strong performance from a member of
. the Phoenix family, this time Joaquin.
Van Sant rode that wave to his
ji
biggest hit to date, Good Will Hunt-
ing, complete with the big-time
Oscar Experience. Buddy Scott
Green was also along for that ride as
the director’s assistant.
He remembers the set as being typically laid
back, except when star Robin Williams enter
tained them between takes. “He’d start impro
vising and have the crew peeing their pants.”
T
Continued on
O
"When we're casting
guys there is the extra
conflict of interest
of falling in love
with them, but I don't
illow that to happen."
—Gus Van Sant
One of the many props Van Sant has kept is this sign from My O un P rivate Idaho: “Warning to
tourists, do not laugh at the natives”